Making Good on Promises of Transparency

Remember how we all cheered when, during the presidential campaign, Senator Obama promised to lead the most transparent administration ever? Well, I knew it was a lie but more naive and gullible people believed it and got all teary-eyed that, at long last, a true American leader had arrived. Suckers!

How's this for transparency - Obama has not held a White House press conference since July 22, 2009 as reported both by the Huffington Post (a liberal-leaning news source) and ABC News. He held 5 full conferences in the first six months of his term. That's right, it's been nearly a YEAR since he stood in the press room and took questions from the press. Now, if all transparency means to you is that the White House keep putting out well-crafted and scripted statements then I guess you would be okay with it. After all, Obama has been making lots of statements but, in the weirdest interpretation of the word "transparency" he has not actually shown the nerve to go off his teleprompter that's always attched to his hip to take questions from the press which is supposed to represent the people. I can imagine that the press have lots and lots of questions on the things that have been happening since last July. The Arizona law, the oil spill, the decision to put 1200 US troops on the Mexican border, the wars that we're fighting. The list of things that we're wondering about goes on and on and no, Mr. President, a tailored-to-your-agenda statement or speech will not suffice. Is this what you call presidential? Is this the mark of a good leader? A man who won't face the press and take questions? Several weeks ago Obama signed the Freedom of the Press Act and then promptly refused to take questions on anything. The irony there is too sweet and very telling.

I can understand why the president would want to stay on a very focused message without having that nagging press asking him hard questions. See, in a startling coincidence July 22, 2009 was just two days before Obama's approval rating sank below 50%. He started with an approval rating of 65% at the time of his inauguration. By late July he was below 50%. He now sits between 42-45%. Currently, only 23% strongly approve while 43% strongly disapprove. It seems this president is afraid of having to go off-prompter in front of the press. He might actually say what he's really thinking instead of what his speech writers tell him to say. And then, the man behind the curtain would finally be reavealed for all to see.